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Karnataka High Court declines to suspend Prajwal Revanna’s life sentence in rape case

Prajwal Revanna has been in custody since his May 2024 arrest on returning from Germany, where he had fled after several videos had surfaced allegedly showing sexual assaults he had committed.

3 min readBengaluruDec 3, 2025 10:36 PM IST

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Former JD(S) MP Prajwal Revanna was sentenced to life imprisonment in a rape case. (File Photo)

The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday rejected an interlocutory application filed by former JD(S) MP Prajwal Revanna seeking suspension of the life sentence awarded in a case where he was convicted of raping a woman who had been working at his family’s farmhouse.

Revanna has been in custody since his May 2024 arrest on returning from Germany, where he had fled after several videos had surfaced allegedly showing sexual assaults he had committed. Apart from the life sentence imposed on him in August, the court also ordered Revanna to pay the fine amount of Rs 11.25 lakh to the victim.

The interlocutory application came in the context of the ongoing proceedings on Revanna’s petition to set aside his conviction for rape and the accompanying life sentence. He had argued in his petition that there were several inconsistencies in the evidence, such as how a certain mattress could have remained with stains in 2024 during the examination, when the alleged incidents had occurred in 2021 and 2022.

Senior counsel Siddharth Luthra, appearing for Revanna, had also stated during previous proceedings on the petition that the matter had become a “media trial”, while the Special Public Prosecutor Ravivarma Kumar had opposed Revanna’s release on bail, stating that he would be a “menace” to society.

During Wednesday’s proceedings, a bench of Justices K S Mudagal and Venkatesh Naik stated while rejecting Revanna’s interlocutory application, “The connected matters are still pending for trial….there is much force in the submission of the learned senior counsel (Ravivarma Kumar) that if the sentence is suspended, the witnesses in other pending cases are likely to be tampered.”

The court added, “The other ground urged by senior counsel Siddharth Luthra is that before this court, many appeals are pending and hearing of this one may take some time, and if appellant is acquitted, his liberty cannot be reimbursed….it is open to the appellant to argue the matter on merits. If there is urgency in the matter, it is open to the appellant (Revanna) to seek an early hearing, and the matter can be listed for final hearing on a priority basis. Weighing the material on record, the gravity of the offence and effect on the other pending cases if he is released on bail…..this is not a fit case for granting suspension of sentence and bail.”

Revanna’s petition will be heard further on January 12, 2026.